FBI agents have arrested a Swiss attorney in Boca Raton and charged him in connection with a scheme to defraud banks by using part of a $1 billion stash of stolen bonds, the agency said on Monday.

Agents also recovered a box of canceled U.S. corporate bonds with a former face value of $47.8 million.

FBI agents said the scheme mainly preyed upon naive European bank officials who did not realize the U.S. corporate bonds had pinhead perforations on the lower left hand, a sign that they had been canceled and were worthless.

``The bonds have been used mainly as collateral for large loans which have not been paid back,`` said Roger Wheeler, assistant special agent in charge of the Miami office.

As much as $750 million in the stolen corporate bond certificates remains unaccounted for and could be used in similar schemes. The FBI said it has tracked down but not yet confiscated millions more in the voided bonds.

``Banks need to be alerted,`` Wheeler said.

The bonds had not reached their maturity date, which may have further helped convince bank officials of their authenticity, he said.

The confiscated one-time blue chip bonds were from some of the nation`s largest companies, such as United Airlines, Monsanto, Dow Chemical, Shell Oil Co., Kerr-McGee Corp., Phillips Petroleum and Armco Steel Co.

Arrested on Thursday in the Marriott Hotel, Crocker Center was Roman Nikolaus Abegg, 57, of Octen, Switzerland. His arrest was announced on Monday. Abegg was charged with interstate transportation of stolen securities and bank fraud after FBI agents say he received the box of canceled bonds from Switzerland through the U.S. mail.

Abegg is being held without bail at the Martin County Jail. If convicted, he would face up to 30 years in prison. Two other people have been arrested in Switzerland in connection with the case.

Worldwide estimates show financial institutions, mostly in Europe, have been defrauded of about $7 million through the stolen bonds. One U.S. bank alone lost $1 million to the scheme.

``The potential of adverse economic impact locally, nationally and internationally for financial institutions cannot be underscored enough,`` said Acting U.S. Attorney James McAdams, who joined the FBI in announcing the confiscation of the bonds.

Abegg`s arrest came after an alert bank teller at Miners National Bank in Pottsville, Pa. realized the bonds Abegg had presented as collateral were canceled in the late 1970s.

On Jan. 22, Abegg tried to get a $465,000 bank loan from the bank by presenting $650,000 in canceled corporate security bonds as collateral, the FBI said.

The face value of the confiscated bonds ranged from $25,000 to $1 million, the FBI said.

The worthless bonds were part of a $1 billion stash of canceled bonds that were supposed to have been destroyed in 1980 or 1981 by a New Jersey firm hired by CitiBank of New York. The firm went out of business before destroying the bonds, and the documents disappeared.

The bonds began surfacing in Europe in connection with fraud cases in September 1991, the FBI said.

There is a possibility that some of the stolen bonds are lying in bank vaults, having been used as collateral and that the banks do not yet realize they have been defrauded, Wheeler said.

There are now about a dozen separate investigations in the United States into bank fraud cases linked to the stolen bonds, he said.